mobile

Today's Vision of Tomorrow: Digital Music From Mobile Pandora, Sony's iTunes Rival

Kit Eaton — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:54:11 -0500

Digital music turned the recording industry upside down several times already, and given the amazing rate of change it's going to keep evolving dramatically. A couple of news items today point to how this evolution will mean we consume music tomorrow.

Pandora Users Point to a Mobile Streaming Music Future

Will Customer Outrage Ruin Verizon's Smartphone Campaign?

Chris Dannen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:46:53 -0500

Verizon Wireless is on a roll: its Droid phones are making headlines, advertisements are getting under AT&T's skin, 4G is almost ready to roll and everyone seems convinced the carrier will eventually read more

Phone-Cloud Lets You Ditch Office Landlines

Chris Dannen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:22:34 -0400

For many office workers, landlines are a redundant nuisance: one more voicemail account to check, one more thing to ring during a clandestine nap. But most office buildings wreak havoc on cell reception. New intra-office phone antennas, working as a cloud to smartly route traffic, might finally solve the problem, rendering landlines at long last unnecessary.

How to Mobilize Your Social Media

Dilithium VideoSpace — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:16:05 -0400

Recently, Advertising Age reported on the 400% surge
in mobile video uploads to YouTube, attributed to the new iPhone 3GS.
Beyond the implications of what that may mean for the value of ad
inventory on YouTube, one thing is clear: There is an inseparable link
between social media and mobile devices.

Undead Tech: the Wrist-Mounted Cell Phone

Chris Dannen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:17:46 -0400

Glamour shots of this concept cell-phone wristwatch have been bouncing between design blogs, and Samsung announced recently that it would release a real-life analog in Europe by the fourth quarter of this year. But the wrist-mounted communications device has real roots--and I'm not talking about Dick Tracy.

Furious Sidekick Owners Blame Microsoft

Chris Dannen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:04:12 -0400

Update: T-Mobile says that much of the data may indeed be recoverable on Microsoft's backend, according to the New York Times. Engineers in Redmond are "optimistic that much of it can be recovered," but individual customers have yet to be notified whether their data is part of that pool

Amazon Streamlines On-the-Go Sales--Opens 1-Click Mobile Payments to Third Parties

Clay Dillow — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:13:54 -0400

That familiar "Buy Now With 1-Click" button, so enticing on Amazon.com, is about to become a temptation for mobile customers everywhere. Amazon is offering its Mobile Payments Service (MPS) platform to third parties for integration into mobile apps and Web sites. That makes it easier for users to purchase goods or information on mobile devices through their existing Amazon accounts--without having to re-log into a Web site or an app each time he or she wants to buy something.

Amazon Brings One-Click Buying to Mobile Apps

Chris Dannen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:20:36 -0400

Amazon's patented one-click purchasing has been the boon companion of plenty of impulse purchases. Now the retailer is looking to bring the one-click experience to mobile phones for businesses that use its PayPal competitor, Amazon Payments.

Google Embeds Bigger Ads Into Smartphones

Chris Dannen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:02:31 -0400

If you use Google AdSense to monetize your site, you'll now be able to run large, fancy ads when people visit your site from an iPhone, Pre, or another large-screen smartphone.

ISPs to Add Mobile Broadband to Service Plans

Chris Dannen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:22:49 -0400

Internet providers like Comcast and Time Warner are beginning to offer mobile 3G service as a bundle with home Internet, reports the New York Times. The goal: undercut wireless providers like Verizon and AT&T, who sell such services for around $60 a month.

Verizon May Cancel Plans for Palm Pre

Chris Dannen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:11:26 -0400

Verizon has reportedly lost interest in carrying the Palm Pre smartphone, according to the Street.

Evernote: Your Other Brain, for Windows

Chris Dannen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:47:58 -0400

Evernote is a remember-everything notebook app beloved by obsessive developers, project managers, and generally forgetful creatives everywhere. This week the company launched a revamped Windows version, which will bring it up to speed with the slick version for Mac. If you're a PC goon and you haven't tried Evernote, this is your best excuse.

How Foursquare Can Steal Local from Twitter

Chris Dannen — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:10:24 -0400

Foursquare, a hyperlocal where-to-go app for smartphones, announced they'd be opening business accounts earlier this week, potentially beating Twitter to a rich revenue model. But Dennis Crowley, Foursquare's founder, says he's not charging businesses to run promotions using Foursquare--at least not yet.

The HP-85: iPhone of the 1980s

Chris Dannen — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:03:46 -0400

On Friday we reported a new iPhone app that makes it easier to start a small business. The idea that a small, portable computing device could help grow a concept into company isn't a new one; in fact, it was the genesis of HP's marketing campaign for their early 1980s PC, the HP-85.

Autodesk's SketchBook Goes Mobile, Has Pressure-Sensitive Brushes

Chris Dannen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:52:21 -0400

Art nerds know that Autodesk's SketchBook Pro is the go-to animation for illustrators, but what they'll learn tomorrow morning is that it's also a powerful tool on the go. SketchBook Mobile is the handheld edition of its popular full-size counterpart, and will be available for iPhone. (Below, a drawing by D. Guertin, which can also be found on the SketchBook Mobile flickr group.)

BICSI Fall Conference and Exhibition

Clay Dillow — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:13:51 -0400

Back when information transport systems were but networks of hard wires moving telephone signals, Building Industry Consulting Service International pulled itself together from a handful of small telcos looking to discuss concerns in the industry. More than three decades (and a few different AT&Ts later), the group has a lot more to talk about.

MobileBiz Bootcamp

Clay Dillow — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:07:23 -0400

"Mobile." If there's a single buzzword that's caught fire right now, "mobile" is napalm hot. Mobile apps, mobile ads, mobile devices, mobile Internet . . . it seems that the future of just about everything involves packing it to go. For those who feel like the mobile madness is moving too fast, it's time to fall in line. MobileBiz Bootcamp, the finale to Toronto's Mobile Innovation Week, is an intensive one-day regimen designed to battle-test businesses looking to join the mobile fray.

What's So Hard About Augmented Reality, Anyway?

Chris Dannen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:43:16 -0400

Yesterday I posted about Nokia's anemic vision of augmented reality. And while we should all hold the world's largest phone-maker to a high standard when it comes to technology like AR, it's worth discussing why the future of these apps is so difficult to solidify.

Sure, our smartphones have GPS, and cameras, and Internet access. And it sounds like the iPhone will expand its dev-friendly API to include AR framework in version 3.1. But useful AR is much more than all that.

Mobile Payments Are Taking Off. But Which One to Use?

Chris Dannen — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:48:15 -0400

Mobile payments system Boku just announced that it will work with a bevy of social networks and gaming sites. But competitor Zong, was recently chosen to pilot Facebook's virtual currency, called Credits.

To Combat iPhone, Microsoft Unleashes Slowness, Confusion

Chris Dannen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:14:19 -0400

Microsoft will use one version of its Windows Mobile operating system to combat Android sales, and another version against the iPhone, According to Digitimes.

The hare-brained two-tier strategy won't roll out until October, when Microsoft unleashes WinMo 6.5 upon the uninterested public. If you're waiting for touchscreen functionality, Microsoft will be there for you--in February of 2010, when a touch update will be available as an upgrade. Yes, 2010.

3G.co.uk reports on 3G Mobile Broadband

Lydia Howard — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:52:30 -0400

Europe : Newly released 3G+ and Long Term Evolution (LTE) forecasts by technology and media specialist Coda Research Consultancy
show that portable laptop and netbook users accessing the internet via
mobile broadband will number 418m worldwide by 2017, will produce
US$48bn in revenues, and will generate and consume an immense 1.8
exabytes of traffic per monh - a forty fold increase over 2009.

Vietnam ramps up to 3G launch

Lydia Howard — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:15:39 -0400

I was in Vietnam in the middle of May, and it was my first visit. I was
really overwhelmed by the extent of modernization that is taking place
there. Several mobile operators are preparing to launch 3G in late 2009
(desirably before the Tết
festivities). 3G Video value added services are attracting strong
interest, whether live TV, Video on Demand, Video-calling based
services such as video surveillance and video portals. 3G may be an

Seven (More) Reasons to Ditch Your iPhone

Chris Dannen — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:32:50 -0400

It's been a nasty week for iPhone users. Apple has buckled to pressure from AT&T and denied Google's Voice application from the App Store: a nifty service that helps you consolidate phones and manage your voicemail online. The app lives on at the BlackBerry App World and Android Market, making some of the technorati so angry they've vowed to ditch AT&T in protest--and their beloved iPhone with it. Here are seven reasons why you should make AT&T and Apple suffer for their sins.

Android Surpasses Windows Mobile in Web Traffic

Chris Dannen — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:12:01 -0400

According to AdMob, Web traffic from Google Android devices is quickly overtaking Windows Mobile in the smartphone segment with 25% month-over-month growth in June. The advertising company, which does 40% of its business serving ads to iPhone users, says that the new numbers put Android at about 5% mobile Web market share worldwide--more than Windows Mobile. (One such device, the new HTC Hero, below.)

Growth of Mobile Services in India

Lydia Howard — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:45:45 -0400

Since I joined Dilithium Networks in June, in the
exciting field of mobile video, I have had a chance to reminisce about
my 15 year on and off association with the telecommunication industry
in India from a vendor perspective.